2023 really was an incredible year here and whilst this won't be a full publication of my diary, I wanted to do a run through of some of the highlights, growth and significant moments that the year held. Whilst I try my best to show up and share on social media, I realise that that space is so noisy and so fast paced and all that's passed, achieved and changed can just become a blur (or a 15 second reel!) and actually I’m personally craving a slower more insightful way of content consuming. So, I’m beginning 2024 as I mean to go on, with more words, emotion and depth. Lets dive..
Also just to mention, whilst it’s not always sunshine and sparkles, I can truly say that building this business, carving a space in the wedding industry and working with amazing clients and suppliers has fulfilled me beyond what I ever dreamt of. So, I just want to start this piece by saying, to everyone that has been part of the story so far, whether you're loudly or quietly supporting, Thank You from the bottom of my heart, I am so so grateful to you.

Right, let’s get into it!

So first up, the floral studio build. I honestly don’t know how I would have managed the season that was, without the space to host all the flowers that came. Investing in this space was a big leap and reflecting on it now, I can honestly say it was absolutely the best move I’ve made in business so far. To have a dedicated space to design in has enabled a much better work flow, space for creativity, hosting my freelance team and scaled requirements, storage for my curated vessel inventory and styling props and actually most importantly of all, the ability to close the door and step back into my personal life. Whilst florals are both my passion and business, balance and boundaries are everything, and so important for sustainable growth and nurturing of oneself. You can have a read of the process here or take a virtual tour on Instagram here.

Next, before the wedding season began, I headed to Millbridge Court, one of my all-time favourite venues of which I am so grateful to be a recommended supplier, to create for a styled shoot. If you don’t know what these are, they are an opportunity for industry suppliers to collaborate, explore their creativity and express their individual style and dream design ideas, outside of a real wedding environment and client focussed direction. This was a really special day working with like minded souls and allowing our love of luxurious, artful, elegant and contemporary design to combine, creating beautiful imagery for our portfolios and a source of inspiration to our clients. You can see some of the work from this day throughout my website and instagram and I am hoping to do a deeper dive feature on this soon. Thank you to Catherine Carter, Olivia Mills and Astrid Flint for being so incredible to collaborate with.

Then, into the Spring and wedding season I headed, flowering at some familiar and some new venues including Silchester Farm, Ridge Farm, Millbridge Court and South Farm. I won’t go into every wedding, each beautiful and individual, but I will share some particular highlights. Firstly, I was thrilled to create for several of the weddings with majority or entirely British grown flowers. This can be really challenging, requiring a lot of logistics, communications with a network of growers, wishing on good weather and meticulous timings, but the satisfaction of having a low environmental impact and exquisite ingredients to work with was incredibly rewarding for both myself as the florist and for my lovely couples.

I loved creating a wide range of designs across the weddings, each unique to the couple and whilst I can’t pin down a favourite, what I will especially treasure is some of the moments with the couples themselves. Like Phoebe, escaping out of hair and makeup to take a peek at her floral filled banquet table and her reaction bringing us both to tears, or making Anna’s dad cry when he spotted the vine she had covering her wendy house when she was little, now included in the floral urns framing the ceremony space and receiving proper heartfelt hugs and the kindest of compliments from the couples that have placed their trust in me.

With the growth of the wedding bookings, scales of designs and the studio space to work from, it was time to form a team of trusted freelance florists to assist with the workload. This was a personal highlight as working for yourself can be incredibly lonely and of course very demanding. I am so grateful to the talented individuals that joined me, I literally couldn’t have done it all without their hard work.

Several elements joined the styling offering in 2023 as whilst flowers do a lot of the work, considered extras can really elevate the overall aesthetic. I commissioned an independant potter to create a collection of bespoke hand thrown stone bowls for centrepiece designs and I was so pleased with them. I have always been passionate about supporting creatives, especially small British businesses and from the offset I’ve envisioned not only offering my couples florals, but also a highly curated inventory of harmonised styling elements. Along with the bowls I also invested in antique style brass and glass candlesticks, apothecary style glass bottles, continued to grow my collection of vintage stone bottles and secured a high quality taper candle wholesaler. All of which are available as part of my ongoing services.

Late summer brought another styled shoot, this time at Wickerwood Farm, a gorgeously rustic and rural blank canvas in the Sussex countryside, with an overall concept of having a sustainable wedding without compromising on style. The images from this collaboration were proudly featured in Green Union and Country Wedding Magazine- Your Sussex Wedding Magazine. I will be writing up a deeper dive into the details of the archway, aisle, table and bouquet designs soon but you can take a peek at the images on the feature pieces listed above.

I also visited the beautiful Greentrees Estate, a younger Sussex wedding venue set within the most stunning grounds and offering an enormous converted barn event space with flooding of natural light and carpentry details. I’m super grateful to hold a place on their recommended suppliers list and with some work lined up there for 2024 I am so looking forward to creating in the space!

September held a beautiful wedding at Cowdray House in Sussex with the largest team of flowering hands on board to date. We created two large statement installations across two sites with a broken archway to frame the church entrance and an abundant fireplace design in the dining hall back at Cowdray, along with florals and candles lining the banquet tables and all the bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party. As always everything was created with sustainable mechanics and without floral foam (it's a disaster for the environment, thus not welcome in my world, see why here). The aspect of creating two large in-situ design was especially rewarding as often florists say they can’t work without floral foam for the larger designs that require a quicker installation. We proved that with enough hands, organisation and strategy it is absolutely possible to create beautiful and environmentally kind work.

Then the last few months of the year absolutely flew by. There were four lovely weddings with season inspired colour palettes so lots of moody and warm tones in the autumn and then more contrasting rich tones for the winter, and lots of candles throughout, elegantly enhancing the ambience on the dark evenings. There was also a series of corporate floral installation work, with sculptural clouds, a wildly wintery tipi makeover, festive styling decor and a run of local wreath workshops.

So, there we go, a big year indeed, and this is piece is only a snapshot of the thousands of blooms that have passed through the studio that became part of hundreds of designs. As I said at the beginning, a deep hearted thank you to all that have been part of the story in 2023. I can’t wait for 2024 to unfold!

With thanks to Catherine Carter, JonnyMP, Harriet Bird and Sarah Carmoody for the professional photographs featured on this page.